Creamy Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

This is one of our favorite ice cream recipes. This Creamy Key Lime Pie Ice Cream is rich and tangy. It’s great on its own, but you could put the ice cream into a crust for a frozen Key Lime Pie. The cream cheese gives is a bit of a cheesecake flavor that is really, really good.

Creamy Key Lime Pie Ice Cream

Original Recipe and pictures by Lindsey Johnson

Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar, to taste
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
juice and zest of 20 key limes (or about 5-6 regular limes)

Instructions:

1. Use a microplane to remove zest from limes.
2. Squeeze juice from the zested limes, strain and set aside.
3. Heat milk and lime zest in a heavy-bottomed saucepan until very hot. Set aside to steep while preparing the remaining ingredients.
4. In a large bowl, mix cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk until well blended and smooth. Add the heavy cream. Place in the refrigerator.
5. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until very thick and light yellow in color.
6. Slowly add the hot milk to the egg/sugar mixture while whisking, being careful not to curdle the eggs. Pour back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the custard thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon, and registers 160 degrees on an instant read thermometer.
7. Remove the cream cheese/sweetened condensed milk mixture from the fridge. Strain custard through a fine-mesh sieve into the cream cheese mixture. Whisk to combine.
8. Add the lime juice to the custard. Stir well. Place the finished custard back in the fridge to chill for at least three hours or overnight.
9. After the custard has chilled, it will be very thick and ready to freeze. Pour into the ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions. (You may have a little extra custard depending on the size of your ice cream maker.) Transfer the ice cream to an airtight, freezer-safe container to harden for at least an hour.

Yield: 1 1/2 quarts

Frozen Coconut Key Lime Tart
Creamy Key Lime Pie
Key Lime Candied Ginger Ice Cream
Key Lime Tart
Summery Key Lime Pie Ice Cream (an updated version)